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Abel can complete a work in 10 days, Ben in 12 days and Carl [#permalink]
03 Nov 2009, 11:21

1

This post receivedKUDOS

3

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00:00

A

B

C

D

E

Difficulty:

95% (hard)

Question Stats:

51%(03:43) correct
49%(02:46) wrong based on 312 sessions

Abel can complete a work in 10 days, Ben in 12 days and Carla in 15 days. All of them began the work together, but Abel had to leave after 2 days and Ben 3 days before the completion of the work. How long did the work last?

Abel can complete a work in 10 days, Ben in 12 days and Carla in 15 days. All of them began the work together, but Abel had to leave after 2 days and Ben 3 days before the completion of the work. How long did the work last?

A. 6B. 7C. 8D. 9E. 10

B. 7

1/10 + 1/12 + 15 = 15/60 of the work done each day.

60 - 15/60-15/60 = 30/60 (abel then leaves)

Ben and carla working together finish 9/60 each day. Carla alone finished 4/60 each day so I figured the amount carla finishes alone will be a multiple of 4

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email. _________________

Re: Abel can complete a work in 10 days, Ben in 12 days and Carl [#permalink]
19 Oct 2013, 08:35

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Expert's post

asterixmatrix wrote:

Abel can complete a work in 10 days, Ben in 12 days and Carla in 15 days. All of them began the work together, but Abel had to leave after 2 days and Ben 3 days before the completion of the work. How long did the work last?

A. 6B. 7C. 8D. 9E. 10

Not to sound like a broken record from some of my earlier posts, but, worst case, you could always plug in answer choices for this problem.

Start with C and you get 2/10 of a job from Abel (which, notice, will always be the case), (8-3)/12 from Ben, and 8/15 from Carla.

LCM and add these up, and you get 12/60+25/60+32/60. Too much!

Do the same with B. Abel stays at 2/10, Ben is now 4/12, and Carla is 7/15. So, 12/60+20/60+28/60 = 60/60.

This approach could take longer in some circumstances, but it's always a default strategy where you have answer choices like these and no idea how to proceed. _________________

Re: Abel can complete a work in 10 days, Ben in 12 days and Carl [#permalink]
03 Nov 2013, 11:37

4

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Expert's post

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asterixmatrix wrote:

Abel can complete a work in 10 days, Ben in 12 days and Carla in 15 days. All of them began the work together, but Abel had to leave after 2 days and Ben 3 days before the completion of the work. How long did the work last?

A. 6B. 7C. 8D. 9E. 10

Responding to a pm.

First 2 days all three of them worked together, thus they did 2*(1/10 + 1/12 + 1/15) = 1/2 of the work.

Last 3 days only Carla worked, thus she did 3/15 = 1/5 of the work.

1 - 1/2 - 1/5 = 3/10 of the work was done by Ben and Carla: (time)*(combined rate)=(job done) --> t*(1/12 + 1/15) = 3/10 --> t = 2 days. So, we have that Ben and Carla worked together for 2 days.

Re: Abel can complete a work in 10 days, Ben in 12 days and Carl [#permalink]
08 May 2014, 13:49

asterixmatrix wrote:

Abel can complete a work in 10 days, Ben in 12 days and Carla in 15 days. All of them began the work together, but Abel had to leave after 2 days and Ben 3 days before the completion of the work. How long did the work last?

A. 6B. 7C. 8D. 9E. 10

Abel in the 2 days that he worked completed 1/5 of the job = 4/5 remainsThen if Ben had to leave 3 days before the completion, this means that Carla had to work alone for these 3 days in which she completed 1/5 of the job.

Abel can complete a work in 10 days, Ben in 12 days and Carl [#permalink]
06 Apr 2015, 06:53

Bunuel wrote:

asterixmatrix wrote:

Abel can complete a work in 10 days, Ben in 12 days and Carla in 15 days. All of them began the work together, but Abel had to leave after 2 days and Ben 3 days before the completion of the work. How long did the work last?

A. 6B. 7C. 8D. 9E. 10

Responding to a pm.

First 2 days all three of them worked together, thus they did 2*(1/10 + 1/12 + 1/15) = 1/2 of the work.

Last 3 days only Carla worked, thus she did 3/15 = 1/5 of the work.

1 - 1/2 - 1/5 = 3/10 of the work was done by Ben and Carla: (time)*(combined rate)=(job done) --> t*(1/12 + 1/15) = 3/10 --> t = 2 days. So, we have that Ben and Carla worked together for 2 days.

Total days = 2 + 3 + 2 = 7.

Answer: B.

Hope it's clear.

Bunuel's answer is the quickest way to think about the structure of the solution. Just want to add a small tip: Because right off the bat, you notice you're adding 3 fractions. Instead of doing the usual cross multiply trick to add fractions, I would find the LCM immediately by sketching out a quick venn diagram:

10 = 2*512 = 2*2*315 = 3*5

2 is common, 3 is common, and 5 is common - leftover is just one 2. Therefore, the LCM is 2*3*5*2 = 60. Rewrite all of the fractions with a denominator of 60 and this problem can be solved in under 2 minutes.

All working together = 6/60 + 5/60 + 4/60 = 15/60 for 2 days = 30/60. B and C working together = 5/60 + 4/60 = 9/60 for (x) days. C working alone = 4/60 for 3 days = 12/60.

Re: Abel can complete a work in 10 days, Ben in 12 days and Carl [#permalink]
06 Apr 2015, 20:07

1

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Expert's post

asterixmatrix wrote:

Abel can complete a work in 10 days, Ben in 12 days and Carla in 15 days. All of them began the work together, but Abel had to leave after 2 days and Ben 3 days before the completion of the work. How long did the work last?

A. 6B. 7C. 8D. 9E. 10

Another option is to convert it to units of work if you don't want to work with fractions.

Say, the work involves 60 units (LCM of 10, 12 and 15). So Abel does 60/10 = 6 units a day, Ben does 60/12 = 5 units a day and Carla does 60/15 = 4 units a day.Together, they do 6+5+4 = 15 units a day.

In 2 days, they complete 15*2 = 30 units and are left with 30 units. Then only Ben and Carla are working and doing 5+4 = 9 units a day.The last 3 days Carla works alone and does 4*3 = 12 units of the 30 units so Ben and Carla together do 30 - 12 = 18 units. Hence Ben and Carla work together in the middle at the rate of 9 units per day for 18/9 = 2 days.

Re: Abel can complete a work in 10 days, Ben in 12 days and Carl [#permalink]
06 Apr 2015, 20:43

asterixmatrix wrote:

Abel can complete a work in 10 days, Ben in 12 days and Carla in 15 days. All of them began the work together, but Abel had to leave after 2 days and Ben 3 days before the completion of the work. How long did the work last?